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- Dag 1
- dinsdag 4 oktober 2016
- ⛅ 32 °C
- Hoogte: 14 m
MaleisiëKampung Boyan1°32’38” N 110°21’18” E
kuching

Dear travel journal,
I can't even begin to explain how I feel right now. 11.50pm last night I boarded a flight to Singapore. Sat on a very full plane on an isle seat next to a lovely older lady who is from malaney and travelling to Thailand to meet up with some friends for a few weeks. Didn't get much sleep, but managed to watch 'me before you' and 'Allegiance'. Got off at Singapore, organised my transfer flight and found a little sleep corner and had a snooze. I know - I had no idea they were even a thing. Thank you Singapore Airport. Then I went for a wander, the airport is massive, went through the butterfly house and had some breaky. Yep I went to an English pub in a Singapore airport and had an Aussie breaky lol. Then back on a plane 8 hrs later and watched the start of the new 'Independence day' movie. Then through customs, my first squat toilet of the trip and out into Kuching, Borneo, Malaysia (they like to be called Borneo - they identify as independent to a point). Its so weird and probs sounds bad, but I totally feel like I'm home when I'm here.... Jumped into a typical Borneo cab (upgraded from a few couple of yes ago but so, same same, lol). Through no rules traffic and booked into basaga. The lady on reception is amazing and remembers me from a couple of years ago :p emptied my bags onto my massive bed and had a shower in my outside but attached to my room bathroom. Had a slight reaction to I'm assuming the suncream which I'm guessing isn't the same as last time. And by slight I'm talking face rash, beetroot red and hot. Woops. Lots of water and cold face wash later it was all good. Then Alvin picked me up and we drove around town looking for foam mats for one of our stays away and walked around like a local, watched Alvin talk to people he knows all over town, including a cop in uniform while we were illegally parked lol. Then we had dinner - garlic narn with vegetarian sauce and ginger tea. While the guys at the shop tried to guess my age and tried to make me guess what different Malay sentences were. Interesting and frustrating all at the same time - I need to learn Malay. Then a drive through the country side while it was raining away, talking about everything from family history, to religion and politics and the true meaning of words such as 'conservation' and 'animal welfare'. He really is an amazing person. I really don't think he understands. Then we got to his village (Sebemban) and his family all got introduced from kids, to sisters and cousins etc. Of course I had to slip in a mamoth size ditch on the way up to the house and ended up wet and muddy but Christina saved me lol. Then I sat with the family and chatted and caught up. The kids and sisters were beading and the babies were being fed and put to bed. The babies have little black bands around their ankles and wrists. Christina was saying that the bands are black and put on the babies because it hides them from spirits. Once they outgrow the bands they get cut off and the babies are then usually at least at year old and old enough to be safe from bad spirits. And now I'm laying in a traditional long house in a small room they set up for me, with the family all doing their thing on the other side of the curtain, the 4 dogs and lots of chickens running around outside. Just taking in where I am and the sounds of the jungle ad river outside the open window. I think every time I smell mosquito coils I will think of this. Just wow. I feel so safe and comfortable and content.Meer informatie
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- Dag 2
- woensdag 5 oktober 2016
- ⛅ 33 °C
- Hoogte: 52 m
MaleisiëRantau Kumtum1°15’0” N 110°37’60” E
basaga and beyond

Dear travel journal,
Today I woke up to the sounds of a busy long house. Kids running around getting ready for school and roosters in the background. I just lay there for a while and took it all in and watched the sky becoming lighter, through my little window. Then I got up and met more extended family members and my amazing hostess Christina made me breakfast. While the different family members with varying degrees of English all tried chatting and asking questions. And then I walked with Christina through the village to take her youngest daughter to school. The village is traditional long houses built along the river, full of long houses, some of which date back 100 years!! And some being built up and being modified as we speak, including Alvin's massive extension, which will be big enough to be base of operations for some of his projects. The kids at the primary school thought that I was super fascinating. I got lots of looks and stares and when you smile or wave the just giggle and run away. Preschool kids, lol. Back at the long house i was introduced to all 4 dogs, two of which where found under a banana tree as pups, one who is pregnant, and back upstairs the babies morning routine was in full swing - food (made from freshly boiled fruits and mashed through a sieve), water (6month olds drinking out of cups! With help obviously), and then bath time. I then helped pack all of the food and life jackets etc. needed by the great projects tour starting today in the back of the van and then sat down and read a little. Then i packed up my stuff and in the van we jump and ran into town to go to the bank and drop of the provisions to valantines (guide taking over the tour when Alvin can't do it) house in his village. Back into kuching through the winding roads and rice fields and villages and the fruit trees that are huge and everywhere from replantings by the locals ( which is great for the orangutans). We then grabbed a second breakfast (1st one at 6.30am, 2nd at 11.30am) and went to the airport to pick up most of the visitors from england. It was soo good seeing everyone. Maria, Jason and Kirsty from my tour last time and 2 couples from another project group just after ours - Julie and Philip and anne and Paul. Then jumped in the van and headed back to basaga to check in as a group. Everyone had a shower and freshened up and I moved from my single room to the double I'm sharing with Kirsty. Then we all sat around with a cold drink and had a chat and then Alvin came and got us and we went out for a light lunch at a little traditional cafe. The noodles were very tasty. And then back to basaga. We went through our bags and moved everything into a smaller day pack ready for part 1 of the trip. Then we all sat around chatting and had dinner and then everyone went to bed, except anne and I who stayed up and waited for Sam and callam to arrive as their flight was a late one. They arrived about 10.15pm, we greeted them, they checked in and then we crashed. Ready for the adventures to begin tomorrow.Meer informatie
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- Dag 3
- donderdag 6 oktober 2016
- ⛅ 28 °C
- Hoogte: 11 m
MaleisiëSungai Simanggang1°14’9” N 111°26’56” E
cultural emersion

Dear travel journal,
I seriously can't even remember the name of the town I'm in (sri amen). But we had the best fun today. Up early and all had breaky and shoved as much as we could into little backpacks, left our big bags at basaga and locked our valuables in a safe and jumped in the back of the vans. Alvin drove one and his old army friend Frankie drove the other, that had me, Kirsty, maria, Jason, callum and Sam in it. We drove for about an hr and had lunch at Alvin and Christina's. The whole family was there except the kids who where at school. Christina's mum kept coming up and hugging me and when we were leaving she just hung on and told me I had to come back. Which I will, Borneo will always be my second home. Then from there we jumped in the vans and drove to a market place in Serbian, with all the stalls set up with sooo many weird and wonderful fruits and vegi's and herbs and spices and dried fish. Its really quite awsome. We got some water shoes and stopped at the chemist. Then off to port Alice where the old raja used to be based and Alvin told us all about how the British chief raja has brought in the 22 laws of Sarawak which based around 'Sarawak belongs to the locals, it can be governed and managed until such time that the sarawakians can govern and manage themselves.' Which is already starting. Last yr one of the local chiefs in batangai national park claimed back his land and deemed it a tungang. Which means he put self imposed no fishing and hunting laws on the land - and he won through the local Sarawak courts. Which is a first promising step in the right direction. Especially seeing as government run national parks are logged and hunted and fished on a daily basis. The trick now is to get the chiefs who are taking back their land to protect it and become involved with sustainable ecotourism. Not plant palm oil or coffee or pepper after clearing their land. This will not only bring them income into their village but will mean they won't have to destroy parts of their lands and hopefully keep good care of it, especially if tourists regularly visit and leave the habitat perfect for orangutans to move into /stay in those areas and coexist with the locals. The point of us being here is to meet this chief and show him the benefits of ecotourism and the importance of conservation and start building a mutual respect relationship. And hopefully impact the tribes all along the batangi rivers. The land of the traditional headhunters. Headhunters traditionally hunted heads, and collected skulls. It was a right of passage along and show of strength and bravery along with their first needle tattoo on their shoulder. Having skulls showed bravery and power and that he would be able to protect his wife and babies if need be. Today this custom has changed and boys have to find other ways to show their bravery. Alvin swam across a crocodile infested river to show he was brave and entered adult hood and proved to Christina's family that he was worthy. Another custom is for boys to sneak into the bed of a girl in a traditional long house where the family all sleeps in one room without getting caught. After the fort we booked into a fancy hotel and finished off the shopping for our trip. At the super market we got lots of looks and people asking to take pictures. Most of them haven't seen whities before so to them we were the odd ones. This obviously is not a tourist area. All through Town we got lots of pictures and stares. Being a whitie (as they call it) is not a bad thing. Its something they value, lots of people try to lighten their skin and become more pale. Is a phrase to purely represent what we are not a nasty term. Walking through town there were swallows everywhere down the main street and even when it poorer they stayed. It was quite awesome to see, the shear amount of tiny birds. After shopping we went for sundowners -drinks and nibbles (at sundown :p) and then had a meat and noodle dinner in an open plan eatery type area. A few people got pretty drunk which was slightly funny and then we stopped for ice cream and bad jokes and then we were off to bed.Meer informatie
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- Dag 4
- vrijdag 7 oktober 2016 om 15:26
- ⛅ 28 °C
- Hoogte: 115 m
MaleisiëSungai Santu1°9’36” N 111°55’28” E
batangi longhouse resort

Dear travel journal,
Back to the rainforest today. The part of the trip we have all been looking forward to the most. Up early for breaky, loaded into the vans and went shopping for snacks and mattresses. Once we got what we needed we were off. We drove for two hours ish and ended up at batangi resort jetty. Here we split off. Alvin and Christina took Sam, callum, Anne and Paul up the river with all of the provisions. While Kirsty, maria, Jason, Julie and phil booked into the Aiman. Batang Ai Resort, Lubik Antu. However, to get to the resort we first had to get into a little boat for half an hr that took us over to where the resort was. Which was nice, its awesome being back out into these waters. The resort is a bit swish. They didn't have our rooms ready so we sat around in the lounge and chatted while they got them sorted. Which is totally weird because all day we seriously saw a grand total of like 4 other guests. Once the rooms where ready we checked in and got settled and then while maria and Jason had a sleep, the rest of us went up to the pool and had a dip and chillaxed in the shade and saw a butterfly the size of a dinner plate. After we cooled off we had lunch and then headed back to our rooms. I did all my washing and hung it out along the fence of the front balcony of the long house and played with my camera and fell asleep for an hour. Around 4.30pm Jason, Julie and I headed back to the main building and went on a canopy walk. The other three aren't keen on heights so decided they would stay behind. It was about a 1k walk up hill to the canopy walk. The canopy walk was some netting and rope tied between 2 trees with ladders laid down between them and a plank of wood across the top. It was 150meters across and 50 meters up. At the start there was a little platform that you had to get to by climbing up a ladder that was tied in by rope lol. The view was pretty the lake one side and the mountains the other. And another ladder tied to the other end to get down. Then it was about another 1km walk back. The whole way up and down the guide kept stopping and talked about the trees and which ones were edable and we stopped at a headhunter chiefs grave of the local tribe who is still visited by his ancestors on his passing anniversary. Its been 200 years since the last traditional headhunter. It was a nice little walk. Then I walked around the resort a little and took loads of pictures of the scenery and sun setting. Then back to the room to organise my cloths and bags and then we headed up to the restaurant for dinner. We sat and ate and then moved down the balcony to sitting chairs. The geckos were huge and by the dozen and the sparrows were nesting on the lights and we entertained ourselves by watch the bats come in and find a place to eat. After chatting and photo taking it was time for shower and bed xoMeer informatie
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- Dag 5
- zaterdag 8 oktober 2016
- 🌧 11 °C
- Hoogte: 310 m
MaleisiëSungai Ipoh1°13’15” N 111°56’52” E
longhouse with the locals

Dear travel journal,
Today we woke up and had breaky at the hotel and then we packed our stuff and headed down to the main building to wait for Alvin and the longboats. He had to go into town to get supplies so the wait was a bit extended. While we were waiting maria, Kirsty and I went for a wander down the front path of the resort. Had some lunch and sat around chatting for a bit. When Alvin got to the hotel we loaded into the boats and finally headed up the river. Same traditional longboats as last time I was here. 2 of us in each boat (Alvin and I, in my boat). Up the river, and reminiscing about the last time I was here. We only had to get out of the boat once to help push the boat over a super shallow bit. Which was pretty good considering how we were fighting up river the whole time. We had 2 iban in each boat. One at the front with a paddle and long stick to help steer and one at the back with the boat engine driving and steering the boat from back there. Once we arrived at the log house, we saw the site which is still very much in progress and had to walked up the muddy bank with bits of wood lay down for stairs, which were super slippy because they had, had a storm that morning (oddly we didn't any rain at all). The long house on the right has two sections the first was a big open square. With one corner still not built in. The front bit with the 'door' and a side section with the fire pit for cooking. Along the wall with the firepit was a kitchen and food. A table in the middle. None of the walls have been finished yet. And along the other wall the iban tribe has their bed set up (sleeping mats). There is 10 of them in total building this foundation who are staying here and we are staying with them. The second room is a square room with the beds around 3 sides, with one side wall finished off with a hanging tarp, none built all the way to to roof. Each raised bed had a mat over the top nailed down. Under each mat was a coin. The coin was placed to help pay respects to the spirits of the land in which we are staying in. and a little shed away from the main house with two toilets, whig will eventually be a built in shower block. One boy and one girl toilet with interesting and graffic wood carvings out the front of each (I found it amusing). The toilets have a tin roof and wooden sides and the doors are just a square of tarp nailed up and they don't have running water so we have a plastic bin filled with water that we pour some water in the toilet after we use it . We unpacked the long boats and met the iban and the chief and set up our mosquito nets. After our beds where set we helped Christina with dinner. Feeding 22 people each meal is insane and she does it really well. The chief made us sticky rice in bamboo over the fire pit which took over an hour. They usually only make these for special occasions. Like weddings, or for special guests. While dinner was cooking we all had a good chat and alvin got us arm wrestling with the iban. Jason won his and then it was my turn, i like to think i held my own for a while, we kind of just stayed in one spot, then i knew there was no way i was going to win and gave in, lol. They are all so ridiculously strong. After all the whities took their food and ate, the iban had some food as well. They will always wait until their guests have eaten until they will eat. After dinner Alvin got us to play a mingling game with the iban where he put one of them with one of us. One half of the whities taught the iban an English phrase and the other half of us where taught an iban phrase by the locals. I was taught 'sapa nama de' which means 'what is your name?', And I was voted best Malay speaker. They speak iban here. Everyone in borneo speaks malay but then there are multiple different languages. There are 32 different iban dialects. After wards we all sang 'you got a friend in me' old school song as our new tour song (although it oddly works). Last time we sang 'where have the hairys gone' (which is a unique jungle born song). And I think we need to make a new one for here. Obviously we all kinda only were able to sing the chorus and muddeled through the rest. Which obviously ended with us doing the can-can and swaying lol. I'm sure they found it highly entertaining. Then as a thankyou and welcome the chief Handed around shots of rice wine. Alcohol here is very much a common culture. A lot of people make their own rice wine and beer and whiskey. And drinking is a way of welcome, appreciation and it is considered rude to say no when they personally offer you something. Then sat around chatting and then crashed.Meer informatie
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- Dag 6
- zondag 9 oktober 2016
- 🌧 11 °C
- Hoogte: 247 m
MaleisiëSungai Tutong1°13’36” N 111°56’23” E
day with the iban

Dear travel journal,
This morning we were up early. Awake to the sounds of the forest in my mosquito net. Up for another amazing Christina breaky. And then because of the heavy rain from last night and constant rain today. We sat around and chatted with Alvin and the iban chief. The iban all sat around in their bed areas. Alvin was saying this is a good way to see that the conditions outside are not great because even all of the iban won't go outside to work. Alvin was saying that the laws here are governed by the chief who is determined by the tribe people. The iban determine their own laws right down to who the locals can marry. Where as with the other tribes such as the long Ears tribe, are very class dependant. For example even within their tribe they can only marry within their class. Alvin was saying the plan for us being here is to start to integrate with the tribe. Help where we can and become honarary members of the community. We are like the lighthouse group of the new plans for conservation and plans for extending the long house. Setting examples for and giving ideas for how to communicate with the locals and show them we can help. When the rain eased the iban started to head up the hill to make more planks of wood, from massive tress with chain saws!!!! to build the long house and we got stuck in to help. Anne, Julie and I started to help build the stairs. We cut out more wood and mud stairs and then put pegs at the front of each wooden step to hold everything in place. All the way from the long house to the river. And the chief cut up some bamboo and made a hand rail for the side of the steps. Once we all were all muddy and sweaty I took my dirty laundry down to the river and washed everything and hung it out. we ate an amazing lunch made by Christina and then we get sorted and headed out for a walk. We just did a short walk today. The start of a longer trail, which is 3 hrs long but we only did an hr or so of it today. It was a nice walk and the Iban, as usual, where amazing and made us all walking sticks out of bits of tree around the river. We saw lots of nests mostly old but 1 fresh hairy and 1 small sun bear. We also saw a tree that had had the bark peeled away by the hairys to suck out the water. And a buttress route tree that had been dug out by a foraging sun bear. We also heard the calls of a pheasant and saw an eagle. At the end of the track we did today was a bit of a waterfall. They put our stuff into a long boat and put us in life jackets and we jumped off the waterfall (only 2-3 meters) and floated down the river from the waterfall to the long house. I did get one cockroach type bug run up my pant leg which was interesting to get out, pulled a leach off the back of my leg and my stomach and had an ant bite my stomach but it was all good. Once back at the longhouse we grabbed our washing gear and headed down to a calmer patch in the river and washed our cloths and bodies and I washed my hair and got all clean. Then back up stairs to help Christina with dinner and then we sat around chatting. One of the iban elders went out hunting while we were having dinner. He was on his own and saw a wild bore so he shot it with his rifle and gutted it and turned the intestines inside out and put the stomach and intestines into a bag. Then attached the bag to the boar, removed a leg and suspended the rest submerged into the river to preserve it over night until the other iban can go down and help collect it. He carried the leg back up to the long house. And the iban are now cooking it while we are chatting. They seared it on the fire then cut it into pieces and put the bones into pots and boiled it. The extra meat they cooked over the fire and shared it between the iban and the whities. The elder who caught the bore then walked up the hill to collect a plant they use to flavour the meat and boil with the bones to make stock and said while he was in the forest he saw a hairy with a young one in the forest just behind our long house. Seriously within a stones throw from where we were sitting! The meat is obviously pork but had a very beefy flavour with the pork kind of texture. It was quite nice. The fact that they shared with us is amazing. They really are taking on the view of taking us into their home. I had a really good chat with Anne tonight about pets and sad stories turned happy and problem breeds lol. I also had a good chat with Alvin about a tracking project that a zoologist is coming over to do. And he is going to send me the zoologists plans for me to have a look and send back to him with notes and comments. It is hugley amazing to be a part of a project like this and be were we are. I think we really are making a good impression on the chief. This morning the chief was saying that I have to come back again. He wouldn't say that if they honestly didn't believe it. Crawled into my mossie net tonight, and going to sleep happy and content...Meer informatie
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- Dag 7
- maandag 10 oktober 2016
- 🌧 11 °C
- Hoogte: 132 m
MaleisiëRumah Tutong1°12’51” N 111°56’1” E
day 2 at the long house

Dear travel journal,
Day 2 at the longhouse - wake up to the sounds of the river and the birds and bugs. Up for breaky and Feeling a little rough today - think I'm getting a cold. I'm so glad I brought my jacket out here because the temp drops quite a bit during the night. We sore off Sam, callum, Anne and Paul as they head off to spend the night at the fancy resort. Not far up the river one of the motors on the long boat broke down and they had to send the third long boat down the river to make a switch and bring the broken one back to fix. so our morning walk was postponed. So I went back to bed and had a bit of a sleep. I woke up mid morning and after a while I did start feeling heaps better. Christina was again being amazing in the kitchen and getting a packed lunch ready for us all to take on our trek today. The longboat wasn't as broken as they thought they just had to replace the starter motor cord so we could go on the long walk we were planning as the start of the walk is down river. Our guides today were amazing. One at the back and one at the front and awesome supports the whole time. It was definitely not an easy walk. So, we all jumped into one long boat (10 of us) and went down stream a bit of a ways. And then the longboat was tidied to a tree at the base of the river bank and one at a time we had to walk down the length of the boat and climb up the river bank which was pretty much straight up on a vertical angle for I would say maybe 50 meters. We were practically crawling up the side of the mountain grabbing any stable root, tree and rock we could to get up. The rule was give each other space and don't try to help cause then we will all fall. It was actually quite fun. Then we just kept walking up hill and along ridges for what felt like ages. We saw lecks and heard pheasants and barking deer and saw lots of hairy nests and areas wild boar had been. Then we sat down and had lunch which was an egg and a potato each, some peanuts and fermented raisins (sound yuck but actually tasty) and then we where handed a banana leaf (1 between 2- best plate ever) which had rice, baked beans and cucumber. Yup total carb loading. Then we started on again and continued going up and across and up some more. Then we heard a massive crash and saw something disappear between then trees quick as a flash - hairy!!!!! Apparently when they get annoyed or think they are being followed they will kick a tree really hard, and take off in the other direction, as a way of saying back off - not happy! The hairies in this part of batangi are still hunted and eaten so when they hear people they are very skitish. Where as the ones around our camp from the last trip, are more used to people and are not eaten so they hang around a bit more allowing people a chance to get a good look. I think coexisting is perfect but being friendly with people is definitely something that should be avoided. Alvin was saying for the most part, more hairys are seen in areas where it is taboo to eat monkey meat and harder to see where it is still eaten. The plan being to have the entire region move away from monkey hunting. We kept walking on up and straight and up some more and while we were all sat having a rest one of the iban went out to scout the track. And he must have spooked a hairy because it came rushing past us. The iban with us saw it well and a few people saw something orangey brown taking off through the trees. Hairy take 2 - very cool. Alvin said that he has never seen one move between the trees so fast, but because of how big and dense the trees are in the area we were in makes it super easy for them to move around. We kept walking a little more and then turned and started walking down. It was really quite steep in places, it took a lot of 'subah subah' (slowly slowly), rope, a group effort and some sliding but eventually we all made it to the bottom and back to the river - just much further up stream. We took our walking boots off and jumped in the river cause the only way back was to go down and across the river a little. Back at the long house and exhausted we were informed our couple of hr walk had turned into a full on 7 hr trek and that we were the first whities to ever do that track. The iban where literally cutting branches and trees back to make us a path as we walked. Feeling pretty honoured. While out one of the Iban tried to teach me how to say 'this is good' in iban, which I got at the time but have the memory of a sieve so I will have to ask tomorrow. I thought the trek was amazing. I would have quite easily gone out and done that everyday or just gone and sit and watched the wildlife world happen around me. I would love to come here and help out with a conservation project. Everyone did so well on the walk. The oldest person in our group are in their 60s and maria with her poor knees on those steep Climbs. Once back on our beach the iban had brought the boar up from the river and cut it into lots pieces and were cooking it over a fire on the beach. We all got our toiletries and washed in the river and in our little wash area I climbed up the rocks and jumped into the deep bit of the river and floated a few meters down stream then swam back and around for a while. It was quite refreshing. I love being in the waters here. This place is awesome. After a wash and cloths cleaning, it was back upstairs, organise all my stuff, put dry cloths on and then out into the kitchen to help Christina with dinner. After dinner there wasn't much sitting around. Iban and whities are all pretty tired after a massive day. Aside from the boar and fixing the boat. They have pretty much completely cut up a massive iron wood tree that runs down, well ran down beside the long house. So all being stuffed meant an early night by all. After we leave tomorrow the iban might stay an extra couple of days to build more but most if not all of them will go back to their families and long houses and periodically come over to work on building the amazing design idea for what will eventually be a place I will be able to say I help build and set up. So here I lay in pitch black on my mattress under my to net, in a room full of people, no privacy, river and birds in the back ground, trying to figure out how to explain this amazing place and how lucky I feel to be here and how much I don't want to leave in the morning.Meer informatie
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- Dag 8
- dinsdag 11 oktober 2016
- ⛅ 32 °C
- Hoogte: 20 m
MaleisiëSungai Terok Kara1°7’58” N 111°19’52” E
the cheifs hospitality

Dear travel journal,
Today we left our jungle home and headed back to the mainland. We packed up the entire long house. Hung everything up, put everything away and loaded everything else and everyone into the long boats and we were off down the river. The plan was to drop us all off at the batang ai resort and then we would catch the resort ferry with the guys at the resort back to the main jetty. While Alvin and Christina and the iban head over to the long boat jetty, pack the van and head over to pick us up. However, in my boat was Christina, myself and a bunch of the boxes, and I was forgotten about and taken with the stuff to the long boat jetty. It was OK though, I helped unpack the boats and pack the van and got a chance to say goodbye to all of the iban, who told me to visit again. And I also got a chance to see and say hello to the cheif of the longhouse we stayed in a couple of years ago, who was there to pick up a great projects group, which was nice. Sorted and in the van, we headed over to pick up everyone and I caught up with the guys who spent the night at the resort. Then we piled into the van and headed down to little local restraunt for lunch. The little town we stopped in obviously don't get many whitie visitors. We are becoming quite used to standing out where ever we go, lol. From there we headed to the jungle chiefs usual place of residence. The original plan was to head into peraya home stay but the chief had offered to host us in his home for a night, an offer we couldn't pass up. Driving up to the longhouse definitely showed us just how different longhouses can be. It was more like a semi modern, semi traditional 2 story apartment block with each house/unit directly next to each other (sharing walls), for at least 20 residences. From the front it looked like each door lead into each residence. Like most traditional long houses it had two front sections, known as lecks or entertainment areas, one uncovered - the massive concreted area in front of and the length of the entire longhouse, then out of the van, greeted by the chief and through the first door (he was right down the end), and you actually walked into a massive tiled hallway that ran the length of the entire longhouse. I'm gonna guesstimate like 400meters, opened and tiled all the way down. Each residence is exactly the same size but what they do with it, is completely up to them. Most houses have lounge, Kitchen and bathroom down stairs and bedrooms and storage upstairs. Jungle chief is not the chief here at his residential longhouse he is just a member of the community. Inside his front door was a massive living area, with a dry kitchen further in and his bedroom to the left. Further back through a door is the wet kitchen and further again the toilets and shower. We all sat around the lounge and some ladies of the familys of the guys who were with us in the jungle long house (who also have their own residences in this longhouse) came down to help our cheifs wife with cooking etc. We had sticky rice in bamboo and coconut and sugar wrapped in coconut milk based type outside. The texture was a little odd for me but the inside was nice, with tea and coffee. After afternoon tea, we explored the long house. Outside our chief has a vegi patch, roosters, chickens and a pig, as well as a river that runs along side the property. After exploring we all started having showers because we were melting and gross, even Alvin and Christina where struggling in the heat. While waiting for my turn I helped Christina and the chiefs wife with dinner prep. Then it was my turn, the cold water was amazing. Once we were all showered we gathered in the lounge again and lots of people from other houses joined us, including the chief of this village. We all sat whities on one side, iban on the other. Once dinner was ready it was all laid out on the floor ready for serving but first we waited for for our chief to pray. The majority of the people in this region of the country are devote catholic. He lite 2 white pillar candles and from the bible read a prayer and added a section that said something along the lines of "thank you to the English and Australian for their help in fighting against the evil that threatens their lands and traditions." Which is amazing. Then our chief did an old ceremony called 'the washing of the feet ceremony'. He got 13 glasses (10 of us, Alvin, christina and Frankie) filled them with rice wine and put a boiled egg inside. Then one at a time from oldest to youngest (the boys are both younger then me turns out) the village chief shook our hand and handed us a glass and we had to drink the rice wine in one, then tip out the egg and break it on the glass rim, peal it and eat it. This symbolizes getting rid of bad spirits, cleansing our spirit and the egg sign of rebirth and new beginnings. After the ceremony we all tucked into dinner, except the iban who had apparently eaten in their own homes and just watched us eat. After dinner Anne and I cleared everything away and everyone was drinking and having a good time. Alvin drunk is hilarious. The other iban slowly started leaving and 2 houses of jungle tribe members took a couple home to host for the night. Jason and maria went to one house and Julie and Phillip to another. The rest of us put mattresses out on the floor of the lounge room, got sorted for bed, watched a tiny bit of TV and then turned off all the light.Meer informatie
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- Dag 9
- woensdag 12 oktober 2016 om 23:31
- ⛅ 23 °C
- Hoogte: 210 m
MaleisiëBukit Udur1°20’43” N 110°23’16” E
day of travel

Dear travel journal,
I'm exhausted and we really didn't do a whole lot today. I didn't sleep overly well last night, I kept tossing and turning and then at 5am the roosters started going off, and did not stop for about 3 hrs! I got up and went to the loo are 5.30am and tip toed past everyone asleep on the floor. And then managed a couple more hours sleep and was woken up for breakfast. The typical eggs, noodles, and toast and today we also had cheese and meat sausages. After breaky we cleared up, got our things together, put all of our dirty laundry in one pile and packed the car. Before we left we took looks of group photos inside and out the front of chiefs house and one of the other jungle tribesman's house as well, who was right down the other end of the longhouse. On the way back up to the chiefs (a good 100 meters) Alvin had us line up in threes, an arms length between us to the side and in front. He then had Frankie stand at the front and yell out army commands in Malay (and just followed what Alvin did). We stood to attention, at ease, attention, turned left and marched the length of the hallway. The stopped, turned right, attention, reset and broken up. It was a good laugh. then we all said our goodbyes, chief told me again to come back soon as he thinks I will be a good help with the eco-university they would love to set up at the jungle long house, which i indefinitely will. And then we piled into the vans and off we went. We drove for a few hours and then stopped in sri amen. We did all of our washing and sat in a cafe and had cold drinks while it was washing, put it in the dryers and then headed over to the market to have some lunch and then walked around a bit and stopped at a pharmacy for Anne and Sam's itchy bites and then back into the van for another few hrs. We stopped once at a market place so some people could buy machetes and we had a quick walk around and then again on the side of the road for a chat and to look at our surroundings and and how they all fit together. And then onto the village we are staying in tonight to talk about how the area we are in is compiled of completely regrown fruit trees not natural forest and as we are out the back of semmengoh orangutan reserve its prime location for orangutans to move out into and that there has been some evidence that some have done just that. More so by the locals of the tribes then the authorities. There are around 18 villages around this area. And there have been 12 true traditional hunters identified in this area. Who are still known as monkey eaters, although this region has the highest number of graduates for its population in Sarawak showing that they are all educated and have jobs, moving them away from hunting for the most part. Alvin's plan is to talk his guide friend valentine and head into these villages once we leave and have chats and built positive relationships with as many of these villages as possible. To help express the importance of conservation and sustainable hunting and saving and coexisting with the orangutan population in these regions. We are the first group to come through here purely to help raise awareness for conservation and to help prove that people outside the local communities really do care and want to help. We also stopped at Alvin's house to drop off a lot of the kits and Christina. We will miss her but she will come to dinner on the last night. Got another big hug and a see you soon from Christina's mum and were back off to our home stay village. Peraya village is a decent size with lots of different homes, an education centre and a little soccer field. We are staying in the peraya homestay which is owned by a guide named valentine who is an old friend of alvins. we made it into the village and unpacked the van and walked up the river bank a little and then crossed a bamboo bridge to get to our long house. This long house has a covered and uncovered entertainment area. And 10 rooms in total where we all split off into pairs. Up behind the longhouse is a shower block with 3 cubicles with a shower and toilet in each and a couple of sinks outside. Which is awesome proper shower and somewhere to brush our teeth and wash cloths. The two are connected by a path of concrete circles. We all unpacked and had afternoon tea and had showers. The shower was very cold, but refreshing. After we got sorted It was time for dinner which was tasty as always. After dinner we sat around chatting. Valantine sat with us chatting about how he has set up this homestay to highlight the traditions of his culture, which is why there is a bamboo bridge to get in and everything is made from bamboo. He believes that it is important for us to be teaching the next generation. Alvin was saying that him and valentine have surveyed some of the primary schools in the area and most of the kids don't even know what animals are living in the jungle around their homes. They think they have gorillas and no dramas with some of the critical species because it's just not taught or talked about. Teaching these kids is the most important thing we can do to help the future of Borneo's environment and species management. Then Julie, Anne and I worked on our travel journals and then crashed.Meer informatie
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- Dag 10
- donderdag 13 oktober 2016 om 20:05
- ⛅ 25 °C
- Hoogte: 139 m
MaleisiëSungai Dai1°28’22” N 110°23’19” E
homestay adventure

Dear travel journal,
The peraya homestay adventure guys are awesome. Today was absolutely the best fun. Up for breaky and then into our swimmers and we headed down to the river. Valentine fed all the fish in the river (which are huge because of the local tangun) off a raised wooden platform along the river bank to show us just how big they really can get when we protect our local environment. After watching the fishes (cat fish, carps and other fish) we went down and jumped on our bamboo rafts. The rafts where literally just 8 sticks of bamboo with holes cut throw them at one end to allow them all to be strapped together. And a few little seats spread over the middle for us to sit. At each end of the raft we had a boatman, each with a maschette (Parang - golok ) which differ between each tribe. The iban had wider straighter blades, where the bidayu have bent thinner blades, which are probably better suited to the copious amounts of bamboo they cut through) strapped to the raft in front of them and a long piece of bamboo to push us along the river. The name of the river is the sirin river and I was on a raft with callam and Sam and our boatman where Alex and Darren. The rafting was absolutely amazing. Its seriously taken me days to write this entry because I kept thinking about how to explain our day in writing, but I have just decided to write it and although it's not going to sound quite as good in writing, the day was still completely amazing. We rafted along nicely for ages, waved at some locals when we went past one of the villages and one of the older ladies was yelling 'hello' and 'morning' and waving the whole time it took us to go past. We stopped a couple of times so the rafting guys could go 'nature shopping' where they collected bamboo for making cups, bamboo leaves for cooking, different bamboo for eating and multiple other plants for eating and seasoning our lunch. A few times we had to get out and walk because the waterfalls where really steep, or stop so the rafters could cut down fallen trees and bamboo that were blocking the river. They would literally just grab their maschettes, jump over board, cut their way through and jump back on the raft. at one stop we couldn't see the fall they had to go down because we had to walk a little ways through a village vegi patch to get across, valentine was explaining about the different plants that can be eaten and used for medicinal purposes. Aparently paw paw leaf, when crushed, can help break a fever for people who are suffering from dengi fever. we could hear them having an amazing time however and on the other side, the chairs and everything had completely fallen off all of the rafts. Once the rafts where all put back together and lined up we had to get back on. The 4 rafts where push together and to get to our raft callam, sam and I had to cross all of the other rafts. Denis (one of the adventure workers) helped me to my seat, then picked callam up and throw him in the river. Then went to get sam but he just jumped overboard, cigarette in hand which he managed to not get wet lol. And from then it was on. A few more people (mostly the boatmen) ended up in the river between then and lunch. When we stopped for lunch, it was absolutely amazing. We pulled up on a rocky beach took our chairs and watched as our rafts got turned into a river kitchen. A few of the boatman cut up the plants and vegis and chicken and fish and stuck them inside the bamboo they cut and collected earlier. Someone else was pouring rice grains into banana leaves, folding them and and putting them inside other bamboo pipes made earlier. The end of each bamboo length was plugged with a banana leaf which they use to tell when the food is ready. While this was happening the others made two fires from bamboo and leaves and the bamboo with all the food in it was placed over the fire, while corn on the cobs where just placed directly on the fire. Even the tongs and everything were made from bits of bamboo. The corn was amazing, the rice was perfectly cooked and the meats where so tender. At the little pebble beach was also a little platform (also made from bamboo) which valentine was saying is used to sleep on when people are taken out for the few day survival trips where people are shown how to live completely off the jungle. While we were all sitting around eating Denis was in the river and just with his hands and maschette caught a fish which had to be at least 30cm long and then they made us tea and coffee in long pieces of bamboo and poured it to us in the bamboo cups they had made for us. After eating we all swam around in the river for a bit, cleaned up and we were off down the river again. This time we all got a go. We all stood up and were given bamboo sticks to help push the boat along. We only had 4 sticks but 5 people so we pulled over and darren jumped out and just quick as a flash made a new one, so we could all have one. This put us behind everyone else but we soon caught up and it became a race between us and Denis' and williams' boat which had Kirsty, Jason and maria on it. Which seriously just ended with everyone of us being thrown in and Jason and Denis going in as well. Halfway through our race it absolutely bucketed down. The rain was soon heavy and there was thunder and lightening and we had the best time. We were all slipping everywhere and laughing and sam got a chunk of it on his go pro which should be awesome. Once the rain stopped and we got to the end It was really quite deep and we all just started pushing each other in. Denis even picked up Kirsty and threw her in at one point. And a bunch of us just ended up swimming to the stairs where we were getting out. We had the best fun. Of course, thanks to Denis (knickname Denis the menis) half the group had consumed quite a bit of rice whisky which started at 9.30am when we left off and just continued all day and didnt stop until bed. But we got off the rafting at about 3.30pm. Ooohh haaa. After taking all of the stuff off the rafts the bidayu dismantled the rafts and we helped carry the pieces out and placing them on the trailer. Apparently we are the second group ever to help pack up and put everything on the trailer. The little village was very cute. We all went to the little local shop to get cold drinks which was a room in someones house with locked bars across the front and she just handed us what we wanted through the bars. We did have to wait a little though, which was fine, cause her 1 month old baby was crying, who was very cute. There was another house window selling Burger's for like 2-3 ringgets, which is insane. A burger for $1.... A van then arrived with our dry cloths and we got all changed in valentines uncles house who lives in the village that we ended the rafting in. Which was super nice of him. Them back to our peraya longhouse (stopping for snacks and ice cream on the way of course) and slight rally driving on the way. At the longhouse we all showered and I washed my wet cloths and we settled in for dinner. After dinner valentines 2 daughters and niece did two traditional dances to gongs (3 gongs and 3 symbols) in traditional costumes and then taught us how to do them. The second dance is usually one that is done by the older women of the tribes that had rings and bells around there legs and arms so they don't move around much. The first one was ladies and callam who was wearing a red and white traditional vest. And the second was all of us in a circle. Then we took turns at the drumming. I had two sticks and three gongs (symbols) and was the lead and Alex said i did it really well (winning). The whole while some people where taking turns having massages. I was going to have one but 1 lady to 10 people seemed a rough, so only about 4 people ended up with massages in the end. After the drumming we all sat around and chatted and people were laughing and drinking and having a good time. Callam and Sam had their backs cracked by one of the locals which looked painful but apparently felt amazing. Kirsty, Jason and I had a good chat with Alex. Whose day job is a technician for hotels in kuching and when he is not working he is out with peraya adventures and loves it. And camps up and down the river and in forest areas in his free time. He then asked how we felt about what Alvin and valentine are trying to do for conservation, and I asked him the same. He was saying that he doesn't think its going to work. That technology and modern advancements are going to overtake our natural environment and cultural history. Its interesting to think that the locals who are my age really have no faith in the protection of their own conservation, that modern advancements and technology are just going to take over. I guess that's why Alvin and valentine want to start in schools and get kids when they are young and show them a world of what they could be missing out on. We need to find a way to keep up with the world while holding onto our heritage and traditions.Meer informatie
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- Dag 11
- vrijdag 14 oktober 2016 om 15:22
- ⛅ 25 °C
- Hoogte: 26 m
MaleisiëPulau Kerengga Kechil1°56’58” N 109°38’35” E
phase 3

Dear travel journal,
Left the peraya longhouse today. Up for breaky, got packed, over the bamboo bridge and met Alvin in the peraya village. First stop was up to the traditional bidayu land where the 13 tribes originated. From the original village (longhouse and village are apparently quite interchangeable terms) the 13 tribes spread out and moved back down river. They started down river and as the iban and Chinese moved in during the 1800s they slowly moved up the mountains and away from the rivers which their enemies thought if they block off and trap the bidayu up the mountain, they will win. But the bidayuh are clever and excellent at living of the land. There are areas up in the lime stone mountain ranges where the water never dries out. The bidayuh people had lots of knowledge on the supernatural beliefs of the iban and other enemies and they used that. For example there is a tree called a fire plant. That when the leaf of the plant is rubbed on an area where they know people Will be leaning etc, and it makes it feel Like your skin is on fire. There are also some tribes that are carnivores or drink blood, also things that would spread through word of mouth and keep people away from tribes. We are here to look through the village and talked a lot about the traditional head hunters. The peraya village people - binyewa tribe- have moved away from the head hunter traditions and although they remember the traditions of the tribe warriors annually taking the skulls through all 13 villages and over the roofs of every house in each village within a 24 hour period as form of unity and remembrance of the old traditions they no long conduct the ceremonies or have the head houses sealed. To preserve the skulls they would submerge them in the river for a few weeks, then boil the skulls before placing in the skull houses. Out the front of each head house is a small platform that is used to place an offering to the spirits of the owners of the skulls. Other tribes such as the sadong tribe that Christina belongs to have a sealed headhouse that is only opened once a year when their annual skull ceremony is done. Its complete taboo to open the skull house or show the skulls to outsiders. After seeing some of the site of the old village we jumped back in the van and headed to kuching. Back at basaga we went through our bags and collected things we had all run out of (mostly drugs and money for everyone) and then into kuching for lunch. Back to the sahabat cafe for naarn bread with lental dip and chicken for lunch. Then lots of pictures with the guys in the store and back in the van headed to phase 3. It rained pretty heavy while we were leaving the restaurant and one of the guys from the store walked us out to the car with an umbrella which was awesome of him. Waved goodbye and we were on our way. The weather cleared up heaps on the drive and we had to cross on a little barge which only took about 10 mins. Which was awesome. What wasn't so awesome is we did see a local at one point walking along the road with a macaque tidied to a piece of rope who was pulling and trying to get away. A couple of hours later we arrived in a small town and all piled out at a little pier. The Malay chief meenad of the telok serabang village greeted us. We then Packed all of our food stores and bags into two speed boats and headed off across the south China sea to telok serabang. The sunset from the boat was amazing. As we got to the beach front we jumped out and collected our stuff and walked up to camp. The water was absolutely amazing. It was soon warm, like warm bath water. As we are walking up the beach we could hear chanting. The religion here is Muslim and there is a mosque not far away in the main village and chanting can be heard whenever they are preying, usually this time of day. Our camp has two bamboo/wood longhouses. The one on the right has a wrap around veranda with chairs out the front and a tap at the front steps to wash your feet. When you walk in there are two rooms, one either side where Alvin and the chief sleep. Past the rooms to an open kitchen area with little toilet area off to one side. Opposite the first house is a second that has 10 rooms, each which can house 2 people, with a veranda at each end, open tops of the walls and curtains as doors. Split off into twos again got our stuff in and all sat down at the long table that's between the two houses. At the front of the table Is a little raised open hut and behind the table is a little outdoor sink and kitchen and 2 toilet / shower blocks. 4 showers (including one outdoor closer to the beach) and 3 separate toilets. As we all sat down at the table the chief cut the top of a coconut and stuck a straw through the little hole, and we all sat around and were introduced to the chief properly and chatted about our plans for our beach stay. This area is literally a short journey to the Indonesian boarder and open to the south China sea where turtles and terapins are frequently laying their eggs along the beaches and being poached. The hope is that by increasing Volunteer presence in this area that poachers will be deterred from coming to the beaches. And if they do we should invite them in for a meal and have a chat about conservation and sustainable hunting. After our chat we had dinner, cleaned up, showered and went for a walk along the beach front. The tide was out so we got to have a good look through the rock pools and saw the fishes and crabs and shells and all sorts of cute little things. Then all of a sudden calam comes over with his hand in the air and blood running down his arm saying he cut his finger. So back up to the beach huts and callam tells alvin whose response was 'wheres amie she will fix it' lol. Turns out I'm the group medic. Which is kinda true, I have fixed cuts, removed splinters, handed out creams, panadol and antihistamines. We washed callams hand and cleaned his wound, covered it with opsite spray and I put a cover over it. Then a few of us sat around chatting for ages. While we were chatting this cute, very healthy ginger tabby, who is super vocal came over and said hello to everyone and we had big cuddles. Its like midnight so its time to crash. I then got myself sorted for bed and cleaned my feet and realised that when I kicked my toes on the beach I had actually sliced my toe as well. Patched myself up, got my mossie net sorted and climbed into bed.Meer informatie
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- Dag 12
- zaterdag 15 oktober 2016 om 17:57
- ⛅ 31 °C
- Hoogte: 9 m
MaleisiëTanjong Entigi1°58’44” N 109°38’56” E
camp commando

Dear travel journal,
Today was a long day. Good but long. A few alarms went off at 5.30am for people to get up and watch the sunrise on the beach. After sitting up till midnight chatting I was pretty tired but couldn't get back to sleep. So I got up and joined jason, the boys, and Julie on the beach. Unfortunately it was super cloudy, so although it was getting sunnier we couldn't actually see the sunrise. So Jason and I just walked down the beach and looked around for a bit. Back at camp we had some tea and got sorted for the day, then I found the cat and we had big cuddles. He is such a cuddle tart, rolls over and loves his belly scratched and under his chin scratched. He doesn't have a name, so I have nicknamed him 'cricket' because he is constantly curling and vocal. Apparently there used to be a mum and bub who lived at camp but cricket chased them and everything else creppy crawly out of camp. Then everyone else slowly woke up, we had breaky and got sorted for the day. Once we had our hats and water we jumped in the speed boat and headed over to camp commando. Eventually camp commando will be known as the check in port, where people who come to the beach will have to sign in and it will be explained that they are in a national park and hunting is prohibited. The eventual plan will be that volunteers and zoology and ecology students will man the hut at the camp year round so that there is a constant volunteer presence. It was Low tied when we were heading over to the end of the beach and mangroves so we had to jump over board and we walked the last couple of kms up the beach and into the mangrove camp which you can't see at all from the Beach. Up in the mangrove and back in a clearing there is the start of a hut, the frame is up but thats about it. The plans are pretty cool. It will sleep 10, have a kitchen out the back and a toilet block a little ways away. There is also a natural well at the site which has been there for 3 generations. There is a father son team building the site. Eddie the dad is 30 and his son romi is 16 (yep do that math). They are just using a chainsaw and bolts and cutting everything they need from their environment around them. Romi went to school until he was 12 And now he is his dads apprentice. The locals here have a saying 'If you don't work you don't eat'. So from a young age they go to work. After morning tea we headed down to the mangrove river entrance and helped put in the stumps of the new jetty. Which were seriously just tree trunks with a point, chain sawed into one end that were lifted and swung backwards and forward which makes the hole bigger and the pole sink further. At one point to add extra weight We tied two poles together and callam stood on the pole tied at angle to the post and we rocked it to help sink it. Once the poles where in the tied had come right in and the chief got the boat and brought it down the start of the 'jetty' and we headed back to camp. Back at camp the tied was right in and we jumped out and unpacked the boats. We put all our stuff down and had lunch and then went down to the beach and swam for like 4 hours. We swam around and played catch with a small coconut for ages, all 10 of us playing around which was awesome. We even saw white belly sea eagles fighting over and little fishes and crabs swiming/skittering around. After we got out of the water we headed back into camp and ate some Bubor kachang (sweet pea and lentil soup) which was like a sweet pea and ham soup. And then we had some down time. I did some washing and had a shower and got my bag organised and fixed the hole in my mossie net. In a lot of down time Sam and callam have been playing with fahmi one of the locals children. He is 6 years old and very energetic, its quite cute and entertaining to watch. We all sat around chatting for a bit, drinking tea and Milo while chatting. There is a cement path that runs parallel to the beach the length of the village, down past our camp and to the other Houses. People have been going up and down all day both walking and on mopeds and bikes. A few people in the morning and afternoon where coming and going to work, mostly surveyors. And some people have gone past with rifles to go hunting. Sam and callam went walking this arvo and ran into some hunters who invited them to sit and they drank vodka and ate deer meat. They asked the boys why we were here and they said conservation and turtle awareness to which they responded that they eat turtle eggs but usually leave 60% of the eggs. Both turtle eggs and deer are not meant to be hunted in the national park. Changing the views and habits of the locals is going to be the hardest bit of everything. Alvin had received a text from the jungle chief after we left, which he got us all together and read out, it said - "I was right to organise the washing of the feet ceremony for these people and I can't remember in my life time anyone doing this ceremony. I hope they will come again, I miss them very very much." Its very humbling and a big thing for these people to show emotion like that. It really is amazing. Then we had dinner, cleaned up and headed out for a night walk in the shallows at 9pm cause that's when low tied was. Alvin wasn't feeling great so he went to bed early. Before he went to bed we filmed Alvin talking in malay telling our guide to walk slowly, point out things, name them in English if he can and come back in an hour. Our tour guides name was pak (uncle) zuki (he was always on the boat and around helping the cheif as our guide). We saw lots of crabs, a little jelly fish squishy thing, little fishes and Stingray holes. Apparently a few weeks ago the chief got a stingray barb in his foot but thankfully his wet shoes took the brunt of it so its healing up well. The moon was full which was pretty. It did however mean it was super bright. When its dark apparently you can see helps of bioluminescent Dino flagella in the water when your playing in it. The movement you make in the water moves the dino flagella making them glow. And when its dark but the sky is super clear you can see the milky way really well. Both would have been amazing. We also saw some guys way out in the shallows with torches, who were apparently searching for sand crabs. The tide levels here are amazing. The high tide comes right up the vegetation about 100 meters from our long houses and when its low tide its right down about an extra 500meters + out. The water is soon warm its like being in a warm bath tub. After the beach we all headed back to camp, washed our feet and headed to bed.Meer informatie
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- Dag 13
- zondag 16 oktober 2016 om 18:44
- 🌧 10 °C
- Hoogte: 7 m
MaleisiëTanjong Entigi1°58’44” N 109°38’58” E
National park

Dear travel journal,
It was another long but good day today. I skipped the sunrise today and had a couple more hours sleep. Then Kirsty and I got up and and joined everyone for breaky, who was already up because they watched the sunrise. At breaky we all said happy birthday to maria and Kirsty and Jason gave her cards from home and Callam gave her one he made that we all signed. Poor Kirsty is a bit fluey today so she kind of took her time earlier on. Then we got sorted and headed out to the boat. We were off to Tanjung datu national park. This is one of the smallest national parks in Borneo at only a couple of hundred hectares, and is bordering on the Indonesian boarder. The entrance was on the Tanjong (cape) side. At the national park entrance is a visitors center where we all had to sign in and we looked around at the information, especially about the turtle conservation project. There was also a ranger station, a small turtle hatchery and some areas just back from the sea front with covered eating areas, open sleeping areas and kitchenettes. After the visitors centre we walked through a section of the National park that was about 500m through on a forest path to a more enclosed beach on the Malaysian side of the point. The is called a Talko (bay) merlano. The water was awesome, white sandy beach and overhanging trees. We put all our stuff up under the trees and jumped in for a snorkel. We were looking for ikan badut or clownfish or nemos as Alvin was calling them. He wanted us to watch the enenomies and see how many we could count. I would have to say I saw at least 30 different ones. I also saw lots of other fish, lots of different coral and a sea snake. After snorkelling we headed back to the ranger station side of the beach to the covered areas, had a quick rinse and ate a tasty lunch the chief had brought for us from the homestay. A ginger cat came to join us for lunch who looked so much like cricket. Alvin said he has been around for at least 10 years and thinks that he is related to cricket. They are almost identical even in personality. The only difference being that this one had boofy cheeks, where as cricket has almost a Siamese face. He was very sweet and after Alvin gave him some left over chicken he had a sleep lay between Alvin and maria. After that we all had a couple of hours free time. I walked around the main area, checked out the hatchery and then walked the length of the beach. At the far end of the beach (towards Indonesia side) were lots of massive rocks were, so down I headed. On the way the tide started coming in but I saw a few holes where turtles had laid eggs and the rangers have collected them and moved them to the hatchery. The main turtle they get here are green turtles. Apparently if I had kept walking and gone behind the rocks there was a nice spot where a fresh water stream meets the ocean. After checking out the rocks a little I headed back down the beach. And then it just absolutely bucketed down. I got soaked and headed back to where we had lunch. We waited out the worst of the storm and headed back over to the other beach to the boat. The tide had completely come in and the beach was pretty much gone under the waves. Back in the Boat we headed out to telok milano village. In the village we sat at a little Cafe and ate anchovies and small nuts on what tasted kind of like corn chips, and super fishy flavoured prawn crackers. The drinks where your regular tea, coffee, coke and 100plus (isotonic drink) but we also tried an energy drink with ginsing (which apparently you can't buy in borneo) and a drink named ABC, which is crushed ice, strawberry sauce, jelly, green stuff and condensed milk - which actually didn't taste too bad. Then we went for a little walk through the village. We stopped at the Desalination plant. Which had been set up with donated money but they have none left for maintenance so they have no filters etc for the silo's. So it just sits unused. then we walked past the fanorama home stay which looks quite fancy. On the way we saw a monkey tied to a tree. Its an old tradition of the area that they have coconut picking macaques. He probably belongs to an older villager and once he passes the monkey will probably not be used anymore as its a dying out tradition. The owner of the home stay has been seen however, net fishing in the national park with Visitors, which is illegal. Hunting off the land is still allowed by people who live of the land (traditional hunters). They are allowed to do so, to get what they need to eat but they don't in specific aread for the turtles. We also visited the school, where Alvin and chief meenad have been doing loads of work for years. Part of our money is going to the school to buy a projector for conservation and alvins groups are going to help build a new undercover play area for the preschool where they are going to paint the wall and have a turtle conservation theme. We waited at the school for the rain to die down a little but it was not giving up, so back in the boat anyways and headed back to camp. First thing I did when we got back was jump in the shower and put dry cloths on. Then we sat around for afternoon tea, another type of sweet soup that I wasn't a huge fan of, so I just stuck to tea and biscuits and we all sat around chatting, and hanging balloons for Maria's birthday, while calam and Sam sat with fahmi drawing. And then maria, Kirsty and I stole the drawing book and took over a page when he was off at the smokers table. We were going to head into the village and have a look around but arrived back too late and then we were going to head back to the national park for a night walk but the weather was not great so we had a night in. After another Amazing meal (which the chief always sits with us and joins us, which is nice). We had meat and fish cooked over the open fire. After dinner we cleared up and then the chief came out with a cake for maria, which Alvin had brought while we were sorting our stuff at basaga. It was a super tasty chocolate brownie type cake with 1 candle in it. It opened lots of conversation about birthdays. Alvin's birthday is on the 25th June. We also learnt the Malay, "Bela jari jadi parmi - when is your birthday? ". After cake we sat down with the local ladies and they helped us make necklaces and a couple of people made bracelets from shells. We all sat around chatting, drinking tea and coffee while playing with the shells. Then we all got sorted for bed and said good night.Meer informatie
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- Dag 14
- maandag 17 oktober 2016 om 11:44
- ⛅ 31 °C
- Hoogte: 16 m
MaleisiëTanjong Purun1°40’17” N 109°50’37” E
back to basaga

Dear travel journal,
Last day in Borneo :( woke up around 5am and saw heaps of cloud cover, so not a good view of the sunrise, so i was back to bed for a couple of hours. Then it was up for breaky and Alvin made us ginger tea and then time to pack up. We all got too it and Packed our bags and cleaned our rooms. Then we all stood around with the people from the village who have helped us with cooking and shell necklaces and boat people and we all said our thankyous and goodbyes. Then Alvin got us to sing our 'tour song' again and then we all shook hands and the chief gave us a shell necklace each made by the ladies of his family. When the malay people shake hands they often use their right hand to shake and the left to hold the outside of your hand. And then with their right hand touch their heart. They do this because it signifies greeting/thank you with sincerity. And then we all took loads of pictures with each other, which was fun. After the goodbyes we took all our stuff and headed off down the beach to the boats. Callam, Sam and I were in the smaller boat with a bunch of stuff and everyone else was in the bigger one. I cannot believe how calm the ocean was for most of the journey. Crossing a section of the south China sea and the water was completely flat and went out for what seemed like forever. Once we got closer to the jetty we had to cross a sand bar and the waves where a bit choppy there, the boys kept slowly sliding to one side as they were bouncing around. Sam said he thought he saw something in the water and when we got off the boats Paul said he saw a splash and Anne saw a dolphin tail. The chief said that there are quite often pods of dolphins seen when crossing the channel. They get lots of bottle nose and black dolphins in that region. At the jetty the tide was out so we pulled the boat in as far as possible. Standing on the hull of the boat the bottom step of the jetty was just below shoulder height. A couple of people climbed up and then helped pull everyone else up. Once most people where out we stood in a row up the stairs and everything was passed in a chain up to the jetty. Once out we gathered everything together and went over to a local cafe. We had cold drinks, changed into dry cloths and ate chilli noodles which were tasty. Frankie met us for morning tea. Once again the strange whities walking around town got a lot of looks and attention. Once done we said our good byes to the chief and piled into the vans. From sematan, (the jetty) we headed off to soar, Sitar beach , lulu. This is a new spot that has been built by owners of the monkey bar (the guys that help run matang who run the great projects tour last time I was here. The monkey bar proceeds help with funding for matang). This expansion is actually more of a super fancy basaga. Its a small resort that opens out and looks over the beach. It will eventually have 40 rooms, a salt water pool and a restraunt and then looking over the ocean is an open bar. There is currently 1 Lady from Perth who has already been here for 2 months and a girl who, arrived today from Germany who will be staying 1 month who are helping to build the resort. Then off to lundu for lunch. The cafe was in a food court above a little market place. Then on to basaga. The drive back was fun, Sam, callum, Jason, maria, Kirsty and I played 'would you rather...'. And it started bucketing down. We had to cross the river on the barge which with the rain had the river really high. Just before we got back to basaga Frankie said he had a song for us and started playing Barry white - can't smile without you. Then when we arrived. We unpacked and said our good byes with Frankie and checked in. Back at basaga. We got all of our stuff together and unpacked everything, had a hot (well warm) shower and headed back down for dinner. Alvin and Christina joined us for dinner which was awesome. Then we all piled in the van and off to the monkey bar. We had such an awesome time which continued back at basaga. Then we said good bye to the boys and headed to bed. Can't believe its the last night :(Meer informatie
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- Dag 15
- dinsdag 18 oktober 2016
- ☀️ 33 °C
- Hoogte: 10 m
ThailandKhlong Silom13°43’4” N 100°30’58” E
goodbye borneo family

Dear travel journal,
I'm having loads of mixed emotions today. Super sad because I really don't want to leave Borneo and excited to be starting a new adventure, tired from all the travelling and sick cause I'm pretty sure I have food poisoning. So glad I'm in this fancy hotel room with a real toilet for 3 days. This morning was up early to pack all my stuff. The boys left at 4.30am so they are already on a plane on their way home. Everyone else including Alvin and Christina had breaky together. We said goodbye to Alvin who had an ecotourism course starting today (I'm sure our group will be mentioned at some point) and Christina gave all the ladies bead bracelets she had made. Mine is awesome light blue shiny beads with orange in between. Mine was slightly too big so when I had a minute I just took some of the beads off cause I wanted it to fit properly so I could wear it always. Then I said my goodbyes (and we all managed to not cry) and Christina and jaargar (another of Alvin's tour buddies) drove me to the airport. Everyone else is flying out at 8pm so christina and jaagar will go back and take them out for the day. The whole way Christina kept holding my hand and arm and told me to make sure I keep in touch and come back. That's a definite. At the airport we hugged for ages while I was trying my hardest not to cry (tearing up now just thinking about it) and she started crying. So I grabbed my stuff and one last hug and disappeared into the airport, before I got back in the van and never left. Through check in, security and immigration and I was in the airport. I wandered around a little and had a little massage in a massage chair before boarding. This mornings in flight movie was 'how to be single'. Not quite what I expected but still good. The food options were fish and chicken but they they had run out of chicken when I was served (last I think) so fish it was. I wasn't real convinced about eating it but was hungry so I did (think this was what's not agreeing with me). Then just a couple of hours stop over at Kuala Lumpur. I don't think I have ever been there during the day before. Its weird with everything open and all busy and stuff lol. Every other stop over has been super early with nothing open yet, like 4am. So I wandered around a bit, exchanged some monies and found a huge Starbucks with huge windows looking out to where the planes were coming in. So I ordered a drink (iced tea with some weird fruit and honey - very tasty) and sat and watched for a while. Then time to board flight 2 - on to bangkok. Once boarded we were delayed about 40 minutes, so they handed out head phones and ice cream and we sat on the run way to wait our turn. I watched the end of 'indepance day' remembering I hadn't finished it on the way in and most of 'mike and dove need wedding dates'. Once at Bangkok I made it through immigration, collected my luggage and headed off to the taxi rank. I was starting to feel a bit crappy by this point and thought maybe it was just being tired and sad and not enough water. Jumped in a cab and just over an hour later made it to the hotel. It was touch and go for a while, my driver didn't speak english and the address i had was in English. He had a vague idea but not much of an idea lol. In the end I rang the hotel and asked them to talk to the driver and they gave him directions. In my room I managed to unpack and shower before the sickness really began. I took some charcoal tablets. Ordered room service (for when I wake up hungry at 2am) and crashed and burned. 12.30am I woke up feeling better, ate dinner, watched some TV, chatted with peeps from home and went back to sleep. What a day.Meer informatie
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- Dag 16
- woensdag 19 oktober 2016 om 19:33
- ⛅ 29 °C
- Hoogte: 6 m
ThailandKhlong Silom13°43’5” N 100°30’60” E
hello bangkok

Dear travel journal,
I feel heaps better today. Woke up at 9.30am and headed down stairs for breaky (lucky its open till 10am). After breaky I checked and replied to some important emails and booked a temples and city tour for tomorrow. Then I organised my washing (everything except what im currently wearing) and headed down to reception to organise getting it done. The guy at the tours desk said that he would organise it and to follow him (in his very broken English - most people here really don't speak much English, if at all). We left the hotel, walked down the road, turned into a side street and then into an alley and he knocked on a door. I could briefly make out 'dry cleaners' on the door. A young boy maybe 15 ish opened the door and spoke the best English I have heard so far. He said I can collect my washing tomorrow night at 5pm. Omg I hope I get it back or I literally have the cloths off my back and that's it. Lol - will make packing easy I guess. Then I gave myself a tour of the hotel - pool, gym, sauna and decided to be brave and head off for a walk. The streets are busy. Jay walking is the only way to do it apparently. The markets and street food were everywhere and there was the occasional whitie and new fancy shopping complex. Tut tuts and massage people were always wanting attention but they all took no for an answer. I felt really quite safe walking around. It was however super hot and muggy and with my belly I just wanted a nice plain sandwich. I found a nice little cafe on the ground floor of a fancy shopping centre, so I sat and ate a sandwich and berry frappe and continued exploring before heading back to the hotel. It is definitely a town with open sexuality, lady boys, street venders and crazy traffic. At the hotel I chillaxed a bit, had some down time and had a massage. It was good but interesting. She was literally on top of me on hands and knees at one point and their was no room for modesty... But helped with some of my soreness. Then I headed down to the restraunt and was the only person there lol. Ate dinner and headed back up to my room. Watched some TV (found Chicago fire :p), organised my stuff and crashed. Not a bad first day I would say xoMeer informatie
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- Dag 17
- donderdag 20 oktober 2016 om 10:04
- ⛅ 30 °C
- Hoogte: 3 m
ThailandBan Khlong Pak Kran14°18’53” N 100°32’25” E
old city tour

Dear travel journal,
The holidaying begins. Borneo was amazing but we where there to help and learn and give feedback and make good impressions - of was awesome fun but we were kinda working and I had to use my brain. Now I'm just a random backpacker sight seeing in countries I have never been to before.
I was up early today to pack and move rooms because I had a tour organised for the city and temples, with a hotel pick up at 8.30am. At 9am I rang to see where they were - they weren't coming, nice of them to say.... Any who I had a chat with the tour guide at the hotel, praco and he took me on a private tour out to the old city. On the drive out he taught me sa wat dee ka (hello - if your a female) and compookah (sounds not spelt like) (thankyou). It was interesting because I speak no Thai and his English is very minimal. He pointed out different buildings as we passed and told me they once had a massive flood down near the don muang international airport that had everything under about 5 meters of water, just from the sheer amount of rain in a wet season. That's a Brisbane type flood right there lol. We went through quite a few tolls, remember the old school stop and pay cash?? Yep they are everywhere! The old city was about an hour and a half drive outside of bangkok, and I honestly couldn't believe how big it is, the towering buildings go on for ever. Eventually you could see the skyline but everything was still built up for ages. Its not surprise the roads are soon busy 24/7. There must be a gazillion of people living here. Once we made it to ayuthaya. We first went to watyaichaimongkhol as our first old city site. There were lots of minks, Buddhist shrine and a massive temple. A walk up the stairs and I thought the opening would be quite big but it was quite small with 6 small buddahs and well in the middle people have put coins down. You could fit maybe 6 people while looking around at a squeeze. Then down a bit and the 'veranda' was quite big and ran around the entire Temple. The stone was was amazing, it would have been awesome to see before it fell apart. The main court yard with the temples and Buddha statue's had a high wall with smaller buddahs facing in towards to tower, the whole length round. There were also newer huts around the edges which I think the monks live in. Its an interesting mix of new and old. Then off to the giant golden Buddha at penungchueng. Out the front a massive marquee had been put up and school kids, monks, officials and military personnel where everywhere, to do a ceremony in respect for the king who has passed away. The king was king bhumibol adulyadej is was the longest reigning monarch in the world. He ascended to the throne 1946, although the last few years his health has deteriorated and his successor rama ix has been conducting the majority of the official business. Inside you could hardly get through the door with people kneeling to prey in front of the giant golden Buddha. Its huge. Smaller buddhas lined the walls, with offerings placed everywhere. Outside the main hall, where two smaller ones (still big) with status and offerings to other deities. Outside the main building where other buildings and tents set up with offerings so many different gods and goddesses and people scattered around the place at various shrines praying. Weirdest thing ever, monk in traditional dress - talking on a mobile phone - huh, modern advancements hey. After there it was onto 'wat maha that' another city section. It usually costs 50ba to get in but because they are in mourning over the king it's free today. This bit is huge and very cool. The perimeter has stone fences with some of the entrance archways still in tact. You can see the foundations of buildings and the remainder of still standing towers. And in one section there is a Buddha face showing out from between tree roots. The roots have started climbing the brick fence and take over. Not sure if there was any other parts of the Buddha but now it just looks like the tree has taken on the spirit of the Buddha. Very cool. Then off to lunch in a local cafe and off to 'Wat lokaya sutha' a reclining Buddha as our final stop. It was huge. They dress a lot of their buddhas, especially the ones laying down in a bright gold or yellow cloth. It stands out amazingly against the stone of the buddhas. Then back in the car and back to bangkok. The river that runs through this region comes all the from the sea through bangkok. That's a pretty epic distance. Back in bangkok at the hotel and I did some last minute shopping and prep. Collected my washing (yay its all still there and clean!) And then down to reception for the intrepid meet and great. The tour leaders name is Jane. And met my fellow travellers for the first part of the journey (Indochina unplugged is a few smaller length tours squished together, I'm just not getting off until the end). There are only 6 of us Dana, Nicola, Nadine, Micheal, euen and myself. Tonight I'm sharing my room with Nadine. A lovely lady from Germany who speaks quite good English. We are pretty similar in age and get along quite well. She is only on the trip for the first 2 weeks. In the evening we headed down to the foyer for our meet and great. Everyone seems pretty nice. Our youngest is 19 (girl from melbourn), then euan (nz), Nadine (German) and I are around the same age and then Micheal (Dublin) and Nicola (UK) are 40-50 ish. We headed up stairs for our meeting and on the way down our lift broke, lol yep welcome to the tour, step one we all get trapped in an elevator. It was quite funny. I think we maxed the 450kg limit with 7 people. Woops. The hotel guys pried open the doors and we were free after only like 5-10mins. Lol. After the meet and greet and paper work, Jane took us out for dinner. It was a little local place about 15 mins walk from the hotel. The food was quite nice. We all chatted and got to know each other a little. We have all done a bit of travel which is cool. Then back to the hotel and bed time. Ready for our city adventures tomorrow. Night.Meer informatie
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- Dag 18
- vrijdag 21 oktober 2016 om 22:20
- ⛅ 29 °C
- Hoogte: 6 m
ThailandKhlong Suea Noi13°49’13” N 100°35’22” E
bangkok is a huge city

Dear travel journal,
Today we explored the sight's of bangkok. After a little sleep in we all met for breaky, moved all of our bags into two rooms and headed out into the big wide world. Down to the river taxi and we went for a bit of a boat ride down the river. We got off at the edge of China town and headed in to explore. We walked all through the markets with stalls packed in close together selling a million and one different things, food venders along the roads and a gold shop or two on every corner. Seriously you want it, it can more than likely be found somewhere in the markets. We tried tasty pomegranate juice and weaved our way through China town and down to a massive temple with the biggest gold Buddha inside and a smaller one with a smaller but still big Buddha. While we were there a lady had finches locked in tiny cages and it was 100 bar (thailand dollar) to give them freedom. I wonder if they ate homing pigeons or randoms that catch every day. Back through China town and onto another boat. Smaller local river taxi this time. These guys wait for no one, on and off really quick. We had to jump to make it cause the boat started taking off as we were getting on. Then we got off at the grand palace. The area was swarming with people, both military and civilian. The compound with the jade Buddha and golden temple are closed due to the mourning of the king. They had a memorial set up for locals out the front of the jade Buddha and they were very strict on who they let in the sign the memorial. There were stalls set up giving away free food and water and haircuts and all sorts and massive screens over an oval playing tributes and locals all watching and areas set up to allow people to sit and prey. People were giving out black bows. All thai are support to wear black for the period of mourning and if they aren't wearing black they should wear the bow on their shirt as tribute instead. Then we moved on to khon San road. Its the main backpacker areas with stalls and backpacker hotels and bars. Into a side street and through a door/passage way and into a cute little cafe and had a nice lunch. Then we jumped on a local bus for about an hr and half back to the hotel, which was quite fun. Back near the hotel Dana, euan and I walked through the markets and got some fruit and snacks, and water at the 7-eleven. And euan headed back to the hotel and we found Dana a vegan food stall where she got some take out for dinner. Back at the hotel we showered, packed up and headed down to the lobby. Once checkout we piled into a van and we were off to the overnight train to Chiang mai. Talk about hectic. Traffic was chaos and when we got there, there were just people everywhere. We got sorted and headed down to the platform. The train was running a bit late so we waited on the platform and I made everyone stand for a group picture. While we were there the national anthem came on. It is played at 8am and 6pm everyday over the TV, radio, police stations everywhere. Its the most surreal experience. Every single Malay stops, stands still where they are, sings the anthem to themselves and once its done just starts moving again and goes back to what they were doing. Not long after that we boarded the train. There are little sectioned off booths with two seats in each and one on either side of the carriage the whole way down. Its quite roomy really. We were all in the same cart but spread out so Jane sweet talked a bunch of people to move so that we could all sit next to each other. We chatted and had dinner off the train menu and at 9.30pm they came round and made our beds. The chairs slide down and made a bed and a top bunk flipped down from the wall and with sheets, blanket and pillow they were really quite comfy. They even have curtains across the front and window so its a little private cubicle. Our big bags are slid under the chairs our little bags with our pillows and we were good for bed. Train curfew is 10pm. No talking or walking around (except for the toilet). The toilets are interesting. There is strictly ni using a toilet when stopped at a station, wanna guess why? Yep, they open up straight onto the track... It's been an interesting day of local travel and culture. Let's see what tomorrow brings xoMeer informatie
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- Dag 19
- zaterdag 22 oktober 2016
- ☀️ 30 °C
- Hoogte: 304 m
ThailandChang Klan18°46’45” N 99°0’18” E
Chiàng mai

Dear travel journal,
Well the overnight train was an adventure. It actually wasn't too bad comfort wise. It was quiet and I had more room then expected, although I do feel sorry for tall people cause it was just enough space for me. It was just quite warm and stuffy and i , like most of the group (except Dana - cause she can sleep anywhere) didn't get a good solids night sleep. I opened the curtains in the morning and just lay there watching the country side go past which was awesome. Then up at 6 to turn the beds back into seats and I went off to the toilet. Which was interesting because the window was open so you could see outside completely while sitting on the loo. Lol. After we got off the train we jumped onto rot daang ('red cars') which is just a red truck with bench seats in the back and a cover, no windows, doors and seat belts and drove to our hotel. After check in we all headed into town for a wander. We first stopped at this cute little cafe /hostel and had breaky which was really nice and then we headed into the old city and explored. We visited lots of smaller temples along the way and visited wat phra singh and wat chedi luang which had old ruins on the site (restored) which look amazing. Then we headed over to the Lanna folk life museum. Interestingly Chiang mai apparently speak a slightly different dialect to the rest of Thailand and although they mostly speak Thai as well they are like their own little section of the world. This area is known for its Buddhism and beautiful temples and for its copious number of rice farms. Rice farming is huge in this region. Our tour guide Jane was telling us that she grew up on a rice farm and when they weren't at school or sleeping they were working on the farm. They plant their rice at the start of the wet season as they need the rice to be submerged in water for the better part of three months and then its usually ready to harvest in Nov/DEC. A lot of farmers still farm by hand but some have moved towards using machines. There are two main ways of planting rice. You submerge the grains in water and wait for them to start germinating and then you can plant them until shoots, tie a few shoots together and replant them in the fields in rows which is better for long-term crop maintenance or just disperse them all and let them fall where they may. The processes at different for the different types of rice (egg// sticky rice). After the museum we headed back into the old city (which has some still being built buildings, its just the site of the original city with the corner stone walls and canals surround them will in place). We had lunch at a vegetarian cafe (Dana is vegan) which was tasty and caught a rot daang back to the hotel. We had a couple of hours down time, were i was boring and did some washing and lay around and then at 4pm we pilled back into a rot daang and headed out of town and up some epic windy roads which was fun. Think mount tambourine in the tray of a ute, but more tame, lol. We stopped at a look out point on the way up and saw Chiang mai from a height. It was pretty cool. You could see lots of green patches and lots of houses but no high rises like you saw in bangkok it was quite pretty. Then we continued up the hill until we reached wat doi suthep. It has a lookout that looks over the whole city, which was pretty at sunset and better at night. It shows Lana art and architecture and the gold-plated chedi which is huge. While there I partook in the old tradition of shaking a cup with numbered sticks and which one falls out first is your fortune. Mine was the ancient Chinese prophecy (wat inthakhin saduemueg #8) - the 8th number tells that you are lucky in everything. Be careful in your speaking and acting. Immuse from illness. Which actually is pretty much how I'm feeling at the moment. And then we sat and watched the monks do their initial rituals and start chanting. They sit and chant for 1 hour. We didn't stay the hour but it was very cool. Men can choose to be monks and choose what time frame they want to do it. Anyone under 18 is a novice and then over 18 they become monks. Novices only need to follow 10 rules of the Buddha where as monks need to follow all 230 odd rules. They must wear the orange robes and shave off all hair from their face and head (including eye brows). Women especially are not allowed to touch a monk even just their robes so we all have to be extra careful when walking around to not accidentally bump into one. Most Thai people follow Buddhism and try to follow the 5 main rules as a guide to life. No killing, harming, adultery, alcohol (most people fail this one), ,,,__. Females can become nuns and can follow the 10 rules of the novice but they have separate areas to monks and wear all white. There are temples known as inscription temples where the walls are filled with history and stories. Women are not allowed into most of these temples as we are considered dirty or unpure because we undergo mensuration. Its all very interesting. After we explored we headed back down to the hotel and headed off into the night markets for dinner. We ordered in a food court and all sat and ate together. Then Jane said goodnight and the rest of us explored the markets. I brought some more hippy pants (because its soo hot and muggy here!) Which I only managed to get 10ba off the price. But then I managed to get a top from 260 to 150 ba. So $4.50 isn't too bad for a nice hippy top that I can pretty much wear as a dress lol. The markets where busy and bustling and there were people everywhere, but apparently its still quite and its the first night they are open since the kings passing and there was no music in the stalls or bars because of the mourning period. It would be so different to see Thailand in full swing I think. Then after we all shopped we headed off to bed cause we have early starts tomorrow.Meer informatie
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- Dag 20
- zondag 23 oktober 2016 om 11:52
- ☀️ 30 °C
- Hoogte: 254 m
ThailandLampang Airport18°16’12” N 99°30’59” E
elephants everywhere

Dear travel journal,
This morning was an early one. Dana and Nadine got picked up at 6.30am as they were headed out to an elephant park somewhere to play with elephants for the day. The rest of us net at 7.30am and went down to a little local cafe for a quick breaky and then left at 8.30am to head out to FAE (friends of the Asian elephant) elephant hospital. These guys are said to be the first elephant only hospital that treats sick and injured elephants and then return them to their owners when they are well, for example after giving birth, eye infections, bloat etc. Or they keep them long term and retire them if they are not able to rehabilitate them. For example they have 2 elephants that are missing parts of their front leg from stepping on land mines that now have fitted prosthetics. The first of their kind in the world. One with a now deformed foot that does not require amputation post land mine incident, an aggressive older male who doesn't like people or other animals, and a premature little man who is now 6 but they are concerned about long term health implications. Elephants are usually pregnant for 18-24 months. This little man was born around 15 months and was too small to even be able to suckle from mum so he was bottle fed on goats milk. He is developing a bit slower then he should. Mum was taken back by the owner and he is now living in the hospital. He is a healthy looking cheeky little thing, but they are constantly monitoring him for changes. They have enclosures in which they can move around and during the cooler parts of the day they give them long leg chains and let them have free time out on the grass areas. They always have a leg chain on for the safety if the elephants and the keepers. Elephants can like up too 90-100 but the common age these days with like people are more like 70-80. They currently have 10 elephants on site. 5 permanent residence and 5 inpatients. They have 15 staff in total including 2 veterinarians. After the hospital we headed off to the conservation park because we were interested to see the difference between 'hospital and rehabilitation centre' and 'conservation centre'. But the hospital and nursery were closed today and none of use were interested in watching the elephant shows. So back into town we headed. We walked down the road from the hotel a bit and had some lunch and then were picked up at the hotel for a river cruise. Just euan, Nicola and myself this time. Its good that everyone feels that they can head off and do their own thing when they want to. The river cruise was awesome and better yet we were the only 3 people booked on it. The guide was lovely and the little cultural village we stood at was beautiful and the fruit they gave us tasted amazing. We also tried 4 different types of juice, tamarind (the nicest), ginger, lemongrass and longan, which had very interesting flavours and on one wall they had a list of he different remedies for common ailments. It was very cool. All along the river were people fishing, kids swimming and the progression from old to new was so obvious. It was an awesome relaxing afternoon. Some more down time in the arvo and a team meeting at 7pm to talk about what's happening the next few days and we headed off back into town and the market place for dinner. After dinner we headed down to the Sunday night market past all the bars and lady boys and small market stalls. We even saw a nice old car parked in front of a fancy hotel. The markets where insane. There were people absolutely everywhere. Everyone kind of split off into two. Dana and I got henna tattoos. I got a dream catcher on my right forearm and she got a lotus flower on the inside of her left wrist. Then we walked around chatting a little before meeting up with everyone else. On the way back to the hotel Micheal and I were playing a game we created called spot the lady boy. As you can imagine its easy to play. We walk past a bar front with people sitting all in a row out the front and we guess lady or lady boy. Its quite entertaining really. Once back we all crashed cause it has been along day. Night xoMeer informatie
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- Dag 21
- maandag 24 oktober 2016 om 21:37
- ⛅ 8 °C
- Hoogte: 338 m
ThailandHuai Thung Sai20°15’39” N 100°24’30” E
drive through northern thailand

Dear travel journal,
Today we spent a chunk of time in a minivan. We got up early and all headed down to the cute little cafe and had breaky before jumping in the van to head off to Chiang khong (about 5hrs drive). On the way we stopped at a cashew but factory where they sell heaps of different Dried fruits, packet snacks and loads of cashew nuts with different seasonings - chocolate, sesame, spicy etc. You could have taste testers of pretty much everything , it was kind cool. I of course brought almonds cause I had to be different. Our second stop for the day was Chiang rai where we had lunch and explored wat rong khun - the white temple. Wow. We have seen loads of temples so far but this I one of a kind. Its so fancy and has so much detail on everything. The artists who designed it raised funds by selling his art and with the proceeds built the temple and keeps t maintained. Inside is an illustration hall (ladies allowed -pictures not). The walls were awesome. The pictures show a passage of time, from your traditional Thai paintings, through to the newest section with Yoda, minions, Micheal Jackson, a watch with laser beams directed at it and so much more. It was all blended in, like one continuous painting that ran the entire span of the room. Its was pretty cool. Even the toilet block was gold and glamified. In one section they had a beautiful wishing well and bronze trees where you could buy hanging lucky disks, write on them and place them on the tree. The entire walk ways and trees are made of these lucky disks. Its pretty cool. Then after we finished lunch, we jumped back in the van and headed of the Chiang kong. Tonight I'm sharing with danna. We lay around chatting for a while and then headed off into town and walked around exploring for a couple of hours. The markets in town were pretty much just food but danna did by a new top at one stalls which is very cute. The town is quite old and not very big. There isnt a huge amount of things to do in town but for the most part people just use it as a quick stop over before crossing the boarder. And then we headed back to the hotel, which is quite cute we have a little table and chairs out the front of our rooms and everything, and I think we are the only people here.. and we got sorted for the evening meeting. At the meeting we organised our passports, visas, departure and arrival cards for our boarder crossing in the morning, followed by dinner at a local restraunt. It was quite busy a Chinese tour bus full of people got off and filled all the tables just as we got there, so we sat up in a different section they don't usually use for dinner. After dinner half the group went into town to go the 7/11 and shops and the other half of us went back to the hotel. I am so tired today for some reason. Absolutely ready to crash. Night.Meer informatie
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- Dag 22
- dinsdag 25 oktober 2016
- 🌧 13 °C
- Hoogte: 692 m
LaosSop Hia village18°0’0” N 105°0’0” E
laos begins

Dear travel journal,
So today was awesome. Up early for breaky and then we piled into a minivan, across the friendship bridge (yes, that's its actual name) that joins thailand to laod and landed at the border. Check point A - leave Thailand, jump on a bus for 5 minutes and get off at check point B. Welcome to Laos. Everyone else waited in line for evers and got their visas (I already have one), then we all exchanged some monies and headed into Laos. We met our laos tour guide toi who will be with us for the next leg of our adventure and jumped into another minivan and headed to the pier. Everything is green, with cows just chilling on the side of the road. When we got to the pier there were long boats everywhere. I'm not talking Borneo long boats. I mean decent size boats that are about 2m wide and 20m long with long day beds behind the driver section and tables and chairs behind that (8 - winning, one for each of us). And a small free area with a TV behind that, a small bar behind that, followed by the toilets and then a closed off area for the owners/kitchen. It was so amazing just chilling on the water, looking at the amazing scenery. Its green mountains everywhere, water buffalo, goats, cows, herons, locals in fishing boats with nets, traditional and more modern towns. We made two stops on the way up river, the first was a boat check point for the driver, the second was to see a traditional village. With houses made of natural products themselves, the grandparents and wives looking after the children while the men where away at work. Pigs, goats, cows, water Buffalo's and chickens everywhere and one water tap as the main source of fresh water for the town. Laos has everything from those who live very traditionally through to very modern, for example the new western style houses directly across from the village. It was super interesting to see. Then back on the boat. At one point we went past a ridge and the boat mans wife threw some sticky rice over board. Apparently its believed that there are spirits in the pass who they pay respects to for safe passage and travels. And then we arrived at Pak beng. Again there were boats everywhere but the boat man managed to squeeze us in. Off the end of the boat and up the hill and the bags went in the tray of a truck and we walked through the little town and checked into our hotel. Its quite nice. I'm sharing for with Dana again tonight and once we settled in we all went through a little tour through town. Its a mix of old school and slightly more modern. We walked past dogs, cats, chickens and kids playing everywhere, walked through the food markets and the temple in town. The view over the river from the top of the hill is amazing. The town and is cute and busy and everyone is so friendly. On the way back to the hotel a local offered to shake hands with Dana and then pulled her in for a huge and sniffed her shoulder and then walked away. Apparently there is a boy in town who is a bit slow mentally and it was probably him our tour guide said that he is harmless but sometimes does that to foreigners. Once back at the hotel we had dinner and and cupcakes for micheals birthday and most people had a few drinks. After dinner we headed to the only place in town still open late - the happy bar. Where all the foreigners go apparently. We played cards, and chatted and danced and met some peoples from the UK and Canada. And Micheal, euan, and dana got drunk and we had the best time. Nicola and Nadine decided to head back after a little bit and headed to bed. Once back we snuck in the slightly open roller door which usually locks at 10pm (its 11.45pm by this point), tiptoed up the stairs and fell into ours rooms. It was he best fun. Good thing we can sleep on the boat though - we are up at 6am tomorrow, lol. Night xoMeer informatie
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- Dag 37
- woensdag 9 november 2016
- ⛅ 32 °C
- Hoogte: 11 m
VietnamTrạm Ngọc Hôi12°14’54” N 109°11’3” E
boats and snorkels on nha trang bay

Dear travel journal,
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- Dag 38
- donderdag 10 november 2016
- ☀️ 32 °C
- Hoogte: 11 m
VietnamTrạm Ngọc Hôi12°14’55” N 109°11’3” E
massages and mud baths

Dear travel journal,
Today was a relaxing one. I slept in until i couldnt sleep anymore. No alarm for me :) then i got myself sorted and dana and i headed out for a wander. We walked down to the beach front which was super pretty with the mountain views around two sides and spread out ocean in front. Beach umbrellas and couches set up everywhere. Along the way we passed two descent sized book exchanges which were awesome - nerd i know. And then we got smoothies and sat down and had some breaky. After breaky we walked around and checked out a couple of tattoo places for dana to get a lotus flower. We are going to look again once we get to saigon. Then we went and had 80 minute aromatherapy massages which was nice and relaxing for the most part - minus her standing on my back with her full weight. Then we checked out of the hotel, with a severly hung over bianca in toe, and had some lunch. Then back to the hotel to meet everyone and jump on the bus for our afternoon adventures. First we stopped at a catholic church and after hiding undercover while it bucketed down, the arhitecture was pretty cool. Then we stopped at the long son pagoda which had awesome city views from the top. It stretched out to mountain on one side and the sea on the other. Then we were off to the main event - thap ba hot springs centre. Were we mineral water showered, soaked for ages in a mud bath and then showered again, followed by a soak in a hot mineral water bath, then warm waterfalls, warm and then cold pools and then finisbed by chillaxing in the warm pool before showering. We were all together as a group the whole time. It was quite fun and we all have nice skin now lol. Then back into town and we went to a local 'bbq' place. Where they put a coal pot in front of you on the table and you cook your own. Dana and bianca went and had indian food as most of our meal was meat based. We had rice, vegis, chicken, beef, pork, squid and tiger prawns. I was sitting with the boys and bac - we ate soo much food and the smoke was blowing everywhere and it was sooo hot, but very tasty. Then back in the taxi and back to the hotel to wait for the bus to take us to the train. We had a bit of time so the boys and i ran down the road and got ice cream (not that i needed it....). But salted caramel is quite tasty lol. Then back to the hotel and on the bus. Once we got to the train station we found out the train was running nearly an hour late. So we sat and waited and then piled into our cabins when it arrived. Got our stuff sorted and settled in to try and get as much sleep as we could.Meer informatie
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- Dag 39
- vrijdag 11 november 2016 om 17:59
- ⛅ 27 °C
- Hoogte: 7 m
VietnamXóm Cây Da10°33’42” N 106°22’51” E
ho chi minh

Dear travel journal,
Today was a long one. After not getting in the train until 11pm last night and some stupid loud annoying song being blasted at 5am to get us up and have 5 minute warning to get off the train. Today was already gonna be hard but then we just kept going! Back to the hotel and we were split between 3 rooms to shower and get sorted for the day. I was put with the 4 kiwi boys - guess i really am one of the boys now lol. We all showered and a couple of the boys had a shave and we headed up to the hotel resteraunt for breaky (not good...). Then at 7am jumped back in a bus and started our day. First stop was the war tunnels. We were shown a map of the site and given the history of how during the vietnamese soldiers (gorillas) would fight while still planting rice and doing their trades. They literally faught to keep their way of life. Three soliders where highlighted for having the most american solider kills. 2 everyone men, one a farmer who was said to have a gift of knowing where the most strategic place to set up bombs and traps were and a teenage girl who refused to not fight back after her entire family had been killed. The tunnel systems had three levels, air vents, water wells, waste disposal systems, and many hidden exists including ones that opened out under water in the river. Most tunnels had small entry points. Just big enough for vietnamese soldiers to fit - the average being 55kg and 150cm tall. Which made it hard for bigger build american soliders to fit down tunnels and holes and if they did sections of the tunnel where tight and created bottle necks so they would never make it past the gorillas and back out. Bac showed us heaps of holes and traps and bunkers and bomb craters. And then we went down into the tunnel system to experience what it was like. I only did the first bit which was definately a crouch down job. I was told it got much worse and very narrow so i jumpwd out. But the boys all made it through and said it wasnt that bad, so wish i had done the hole lot, but thats ok i understand and cant believe people lived like that. Then we went down to the firing range and euan, guss, nicola and I, had a go at shooting the M16. I was too short for the platform but got to the edges of the target and think i hit it once. It was not quite what i expected. No where near as bad as i had made up shooting a gun to be like in my head. Im glad i did it, but prefer my bow. Then a bit more walking around and we jumped back in the bus for a couple of hours and we had lunch at a place called the garden along side the mekong river. Then we jumped into little boats (4 to a boat) and put on the wide woven hates and were taken down stream to the main river and put on a bigger boat and went down stream. Off at the jetty we walked through some markets and jumped onto tuk tuks. Which here are a tri-bike with bench seats in on a tray on the back. Helmets on and we were off through the back streets, pasts coconuts, rice fields, and a bunch of other things being grown. Houses and streams pets galore. Seriously some of these houses are huge even by home standards. Insane. Afternoon tea was fruit at a local cafe which have long tables under coconut leave roofs and little huts all around the place that are used by couples on dates. Cute. Then back on the bikes and we headed down to a coconut candy factory. They make loads of different coconut candys, dried fruits, things made from the husks etc. We all ate and tried and everyone else tried coconut wine. And we brought some goodies and i brought a new bag and then owner showed us his beautiful 2m-3m python who is mid-molt and a few of us had a hold. He was very cool. Then back on the boat to cruise back to the other side of the mekong. Which here they call the 9 tails river, as it 9 major branches that lead out to sea. Relaxing, watching the sunset and drinking fresh coconuts. Then back on the bus for the two hour bus journy back to the city. Up to our rooms to get sorted and we headed out for dinner. It was quite nice. Then we walked to a bar and left the boys too it and everyone else headed off to bed.Meer informatie